This was a bad idea. The worst idea. In a wide and varied history of bad ideas...Ok it probably didn't compare to that time on PX3-452 or the one on PX5-394, and nothing could compare to some of Daniels hare-brained plans, but Jon still reckoned it was pretty up there.
The door opened.
"Hey," Oz said with a smirk and pushed the door open wide to let him pass.
"Don't you start," Jon said and strode in to the huge living room without another word. He had to admit this Council that Dawn talked about at least had some taste. It wasn't exactly homey, but the place had style and class up the wazoo and the scattering of photos that had appeared in frames on the few available surfaces helped to make up for the lack of the cosy atmosphere he normally went for.
"She'll be out in a minute," Oz said. Jon nodded absently and picked up one of the photos to have a look at just so that he wouldn't keep glancing at the door to the rest of the apartment. It was of three people, two girls, one red-head, one blonde, and a dark haired guy with an arm around each of them. They were all smiling fit to burst, happy high-schoolers and he wondered if these were some of the people Dawn had left behind in Sunnydale. She didn't talk about the people that must have been in the town when it got taken to hell (as she put it: he was still hoping to retain some of his sanity though it was fading fast), but a shadow fell over her face sometimes that he recognised far too well.
"Dawn's sister," Oz helpfully added. He pointed to each one in turn. "Willow and Xander. They're living in Cleveland, though Buffy and Willow travel a lot. That's back from before I met them."
"The famous Buffy? From the way Dawn talks about her I was expecting something more...Intimidating."
Oz smirked. "Trust me, intimidating isn't the half of it."
"I'm ready! Sorry for making you wait!"
Jon turned at the sound of Dawn's voice. She looked nice: really nice. Her hair was glossy falling over her shoulders, her jeans looked brand new and fit like a glove and her smile lit up the room.
Bad, bad, bad idea. What had he said when he had gone back to high school? Ok so he hadn't actually promised himself he wouldn't date the teenagers, but it had been implied, strongly implied, mostly by the underlying ick factor of dating someone over thrity years younger than him, or 16 years older - either way it was bad.
Still...
"You look great," he said and his chest felt just a little warm as she beamed at him.
I'm going to hell, he thought. The bad hell, full of bad people, with bad urges and...Badness.
"Thanks! So, shall we go?"
"Sure," he said and followed her to the door. Oz pulled his arm to hold him back a little and spoke quietly in his ear.
"She's only 2 and a half years older than you."
Jon blinked. He supposed technically, if they were going for when he and Dawn became sentient in their current forms, that was true. The fact that she remembered almost eighteen years of life and he remembered over fifty...Was inconvenient, but didn't have to get in the way necessarily.
"Thanks," Jon said and clapped Oz on the shoulder. "Wish me luck."
Oz only waved goodbye in response, but Jon could tell the sentiment was there. For a werewolf Oz wasn't a bad guy. Not that Jon knew anything much about werewolves, but still Oz was someone he implicitly felt he could trust, just like Teal'c. They had that same Zen thing about them.
"So where do you want to go?" Dawn asked at the car and Jon couldn't help notice her smile was a little brittle, her hands squeezed together. He was glad he wasn't the only one who was nervous.
"I thought a movie? They're playing a couple of sci-fi things at the cineplex or there's some horror films I think."
Dawn pulled a face. "I'd rather go for the sci-fi." He opened the car door for her and they got in. "I never really liked it much, but after living with Xander and Andrew for a while: let's just say getting to like sci-fi was kind of a defense mechanism. Plus I can't really watch horror movies. I deal with enough vampires and demons and stuff in the real world. I would have thought you would be the same about sci-fi right? I mean with dealing with aliens and stuff all day don't you get kind of sick of how wrong the films are and don't you want to just not think about that stuff for a while?"
Dawn could talk: good to know. At least there wouldn't be any awkward silences.
They chatted as they drove, Jon letting Dawn babble as much as she wanted while his brain continued to tell him how young she was. He ignored it and by the time he was buying their tickets and she was insisting on paying for half of the popcorn since she asked to get a bigger size he was starting to feel more comfortable. There was still the horrible first date feeling, but that was it.
The film was terrible, but it provided good talking material when they got out. Talk about the film led to talk about other stuff and while there was definitely a generational gap they shared a lot of the same opinions.
They decided to go for dinner at a local restaurant not too far away and started walking. Talk turned to their respective fields of expertise. Jon hated to do it, but he had to give the classfied response.
"Seriously?" Dawn said, obviously irked. "I've told you loads!"
"This isn't something I can just break because it would be fairer to you. Classified is classified. It used to drive Sarah nuts."
"Sarah?"
"My ex-wife." Jon said and wished he hadn't. "Jack's ex-wife, obviously not mine, I'm not even 18 yet. And very ex - I mean they got divorced...It's gotta be close to ten years ago now."
Dawn was quiet for a moment. "She was Charlie's mom?"
Jon sighed and scratched a hand back through his hair. He didn't want to go in to this, they had been having a nice evening. "Yeah."
Dawn was quiet again. It was creepy, but before he could think of anything to say she spoke.
"My dad doesn't remember me. See the monks put me in to the memories of all the people I was going to be with in Sunnydale and gave me the same memories and stuff. I was supposed to have been living with my dad before I went there, but they didn't bother giving him the memories since they didn't think they needed to or didn't think I would last that long or didn't have time or whatever. When Mom died we tried to find him, but all my memories were made up so that didn't help, but eventually I found him about a year ago and told him about Mom. He asked who I was."
Jon put an arm around her and that's how they were, walking close together wrapped in their own thoughts on the cruelty of the universe when they heard the scream.
They only looked at each other for a split second before they were both running towards the sound. Jon recognised that noise: he had heard it too many times to ignore the sound of pure pain and fear and by the dark look on Dawn's face she recognised it too.
"Don't tell me to keep out of the way," she said as they ran.
"I'm not!"
"And don't try to protect me!"
"I wouldn't dare!"
They came to a stop at the mouth of an alleyway, the smell of blood and full dumpsters thick enough in the air that some of the gawkers who had been attracted by the noise stood with their hands over their noses. Dawn ploughed straight through the throng worming her way between them with a sinuous grace Jon couldn't hope to imitate. So he didn't.
"MAKE A HOLE!"
The crowd jumped at the command in his voice and moved before they had really registered his age. He didn't give them time to think, but dashed for the body on the ground. Dawn was already at the poor bastard's side.
She shook her head and he cursed and pulled out his cell phone. Dawn had blood all over her hands by the time he had reported it.
"What are you doing?"
Her expression was shielded just like a trained soldier doing the terrible duties that sometimes needed to be done.
"Animal bites," she said. "He's been savaged, the throat ripped out, but the stomach has been chewed through as well. The bite marks are too big for a dog and too regular and clean for most demons. There is plenty of blood left which rules out a lot of the supernatural as well, but unless a really determined bear made it all the way to the centre of town without anyone spotting it this is definitely a scooby problem."
Jon didn't like the sound of that, but the approaching sirens sure were comforting and he pulled Dawn away just as the police arrived. They secured the scene quickly, encouraging the gawkers to leave and then approached the two of them where they stood in the alley. A large burly cop put a gentle hand on Dawn's shoulder.
"Are you ok miss?" He nodded towards the blood on her hands.
"I turned him over to see if he was alive but...I'm fine."
That may have been what she said, but Jon could feel the tremors in her shoulders.
-x-
The police took statements and cut them lose quickly, but the fun had gone out of the evening. She needed to clean up and Jon took her home and followed her into the apartment as she dazedly unlocked it and let them in.
"Hey," Oz said and concern flashed over his face as she past by him, but she didn't think she could talk to him right now. She thought she recognised those wounds, but she needed to clean the dead guy's blood off of her before she could make herself think it. She heard Jon explaining quietly to Oz what had happened as she shut the bathroom door on them. She rinsed her hands in the sink, the red turning orangey as it poured away, but she didn't feel much cleaner. There was still blood on her wrists and on her shirt and under her nails. She took of her clothes, careful not to spread the blood on to her new jeans or underwear and stepped into the shower. The water was scorching, the massage jets pounding down on her and she scrubbed carefully, but not too hard. When she had had to wash Xander's blood off that time in Cleveland she had scratched herself with the amount of scrubbing and Buffy had told her off for being so careless. Willow had been more understanding, had told her to buy a really soft sponge so she could scrub without taking her skin off in the process. Willow got surprisingly icked out by blood for a woman who had flayed someone alive. Although maybe that was the point.
Dawn felt her thoughts babble along and didn't try to stop them. She towelled off and wrapped the towel around herself to get to her room and pull on her pj bottoms and a sloppy sweatshirt: traditional late-night scooby-ing gear. Though there wasn't much to scooby: she knew what had killed him.
Jon and Oz were talking softly in the living room over beers when she entered.
"It was a werewolf."
Their conversation stopped abruptly and she went to the kitchen to get herself a drink too, though she didn't see why anyone drank beer. She had tried a sip once and didn't see what was so great about it.
"Are you sure?" Oz said.
She nodded and came to sit down with them, next to Jon on the couch.
"I don't know anything else it could be. There are probably rare demons or something that might show the same marks, but I've never heard of them. A werewolf is much more likely."
"It's the first day of the full moon."
She nodded, but Jon looked confused.
"First day? And if it's the full moon, don't you have to change too? No offense, but I thought that's how it worked."
Dawn turned to him. He was in the way and not helping: this was a scooby thing, not for him and his airforce, but it was better to have him properly informed. It might stop him doing something stupid, it might not, but at least no one could say she hadn't done her best.
"The full moon lasts three nights, the night before, the night of and the night after if you want to think about it like that. Werewolves have to turn at the full moon and can't turn any other time of the month, except Oz. We think he's the only one, but while he was in Tibet and travelling and things he learned to control when the wolf comes out. Nowadays he lets it out sometimes during the month so it doesn't get cranky, but not at the full moon. Too much risk it would take control."
"Huh," Jon nodded, processing rather than humouring her. It was kind of refreshing to have someone actually listen, but Oz didn't look too happy. Maybe she had said more than she should have...
"So what happens now?"
Oz stood. He looked angry. Dawn hardly ever saw him angry. She didn't like it. Buffy and Willow didn't think she knew, but she'd heard them talking: the wolf could sometimes break Oz's control if he was really angry or hurt. Dawn loved Oz, but she loved Spike too: it didn't mean she wasn't prepared for them to turn bad again. She'd heard enough of Buffy's stories about Angel and had seen what had happened to Willow: even the best people could turn bad and you couldn't afford to try and pretend it might not happen.
Oz stood. "I'm going out."
Dawn stood with him and Jon followed slowly, warily. He may have been an airforce guy, but he wasn't an idiot like Riley.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"I can track it."
"But maybe during the daytime when..."
"When I'm less likely to change into an animal?"
Dawn flinched just a little at the venom in his voice. She knew it wasn't really him, especially when he immediately closed his eyes and tried to calm himself.
"It's ok," he said, his stoic aura almost in place again. "I know what's at stake. I'll be careful, but the sooner I can start to track him the easier it will be to get his scent. In the morning, when he's changed back, if I've found him, we can talk to him. He might not even know what he is."
"Could he learn control like you?" Jon asked.
Oz shrugged. "There's always chains and a cage."
With that he left and if the door banged home a little harder than usual Dawn could hardly blame him.
Suddenly she was tired. She slumped back on to the couch with a deep sigh, tipped her head back and closed her eyes.
Jon took the hint. "I should probably go. Thanks for this evening though."
She opened her eyes and smiled for him "Yeah, it was nice. Before the body and stuff."
He nodded and she showed him to the door. Suddenly she had a thought.
"You're not going to tell the airforce about this right? Because they really can't do anything and-"
He cut her off with a raised hand. "Trust me: the airforce will not be finding out about any of this from me. We have enough trouble with aliens, the supernatural is totally outside our jurisdiction."
He smiled and she couldn't help but return it. He really was quite handsome and all that working out and martial arts and stuff made him very fit. He'd probably be very experienced...
She stopped that thought right there and took a step back, grin firmly in place. As she waved him off she tried to pull her mind out of the gutter, but as he turned and walked away she got a little low down tickle Faith would have been proud off.
-x-
Jon didn't approach Cassie at school. Although it was widely known that they were acquaintances, family friends, the cool hierarchy of the school wouldn't allow someone of Cassie's standing to hang around with someone who took extra classes and had been known to beat up the football players. Normally Jon didn't mind in the slightest: he was happy for Cassie to make her own life without her Uncle Jack hanging around, getting in the way. But when it meant not being able to talk to Dawn, that was different.
She hadn't called him about how Oz had got on with the werewolf hunt last night. He trusted Oz, but the thought that there might be another werewolf out there killing people made him want to reach for his gun. The only thing that was stopping him was the daylight - as soon as it got dark he was going to be armed. Since it was human most of the time, he would be armed with a zat, but still armed.
Despite what he had told Dawn the night before he had considered calling the SGC in on this. They may not know werewolves, but they had a lot of experience with containing hostiles without killing them. Still, he rejected the idea. They had seen Oz and though he had appreciated the stunned looks on a few faces when he'd turned furry and warned them off taking them in, he knew the conclusions they would be forced to jump to. They had been threatened by something furry, being then told that the same type of furry thing was killing people they would come in force to take Oz in whether Jon vouched for him or not.
He would feel better if he knew what was going on and that brought him right back to the current problem, laughing and chatting away with Cassie two tables over.
"So...?" Neil said, slipping into a seat beside him.
"So what?" Jon said, his mouth full of some kind of pudding. Lemon, or maybe raspberry, with cafeteria food it was kind of hard to tell.
Neil pushed his glasses up his nose in excitement. "So how did the date with Dawn go?"
"Interrupted by death and dismemberment. Same old."
Neil huffed out a disappointed breath. "Sucks. So who died?"
Jon shrugged. "Don't know, just that a werewolf killed them."
"Oz...?" Neil asked with wide-eyes.
Jon smacked him upside the head. "Of course not. Oz went out tracking it though and I haven't heard back from him since. I was hoping to talk to Dawn, but-" he waved in the direction of the gaggle of popular teens at the end of the lunch room.
Neil snorted. "Like that should stop you. You're cooler than all of them."
"I appreciate the sentiment, but I don't think Cassie would," he said and took a last bite of the pudding before starting on his meatloaf and fries. The musty smell of the meatloaf was almost enough to take away the taste of the pudding.
Neil was shaking his head sadly. "I like Cassie, but don't you think it's kind of two-faced for her to only hang out with you when we're not at school?"
"Nah," Jon said, and couldn't help but smile fondly. "She's justing making her own way in the world."
"Without her Uncle Jack hanging around?"
"Ah-ah!"
"But I just want to know-"
"Ah! We've talked about this."
"I know, but-"
"No buts, there are no buts in this conversation."
"I'll figure it out someday you know."
Jon grinned. "Ya sure, you betcha."
Jon had to wait till the very end of the day to get Dawn alone enough to ask her about Oz. It was after Latin class, last lesson of the day and with such a small class it cleared out quickly. With a jerk of his head he told Neil to wait for him outside.
"Did Oz find anything?"
Dawn paused and he could see her weighing up her options. He hoped she'd make the right decision.
"Yes, he found something. He followed the 'wolf all night and was there when the human side woke up in the morning."
"You were on your own all night?"
She snorted derisively. "I'm almost eighteen and grew up on the hellmouth, I can handle a night alone. Oz called me this morning, said to bring the chains to an address tonight."
Jon nodded. He didn't ask why they had chains lying around, it was just comforting to know that Oz took those kind of precautions. Even the best of intentions could slip sometimes.
"Do you want me to go with you?"
She looked surprised. Surely not surprised that he would offer to help her? Come on: she had helped him enough times he would do it quid pro quo if nothing else, but she was also a friend and he didn't leave his friends in the lurch.
"Sure." She turned back to her bag and hastily finishing stuffing in her books. "I mean we can totally handle this, but if you wanted to come along, you know, observe, that would be fine."
This girl had a real thing about people butting in to her jurisdiction.
"OK, do you want a lift home? I have to drop Neil off first, but then we could head round to your place, pick up whatever you need and I could take you to where Oz is."
Her shoulders relaxed suddenly. "Thanks."
Of course: Dawn didn't have a car. He didn't know if she could drive, but walking to wherever Oz was waiting for her with a bag of chains would have been difficult. She wasn't exactly the strongest girl he had ever seen. The fact that she would do it anyway was just one of the things that set her apart from kids nowadays. He found himself putting a hand on the small of her back as they left the classroom.
Neil was waiting for them.
"Hey," Jon said, "I'm giving Dawn a lift home too."
"Cool," Neil said before he let Dawn get ahead of him by a step or two and tried to lift one eyebrow in question. He looked more deranged than like Mr Spock, but Jon got all the meaning behind it and rolled his eyes.
-x-
Jon's car was nice: too nice for a high school kid. But then he wasn't a high school kid. He was an alien clone of a fifty year old man.
Dawn told herself that many times on the way home, but there was something about being sat in Jon's car alone with him (once they had dropped off Neil, who had given Jon a really unsubtle wink) that made her heart beat faster. He was too old or too young for her, he was military (and they all knew how well that went) and probably not human (not uncommon for the scoobies, but still, she had hoped to make better choices than Buffy).
None of the arguments seemed to help and when he pulled up in the car park of her apartment block she stopped breathing for a moment. They were parked. Parked together. Ok it was daylight and it wasn't exactly lovers lane, but she was parked with a hot guy. This normally ended in smooches or, you know, vampires or other forms of death and she tried to convince herself it was fear that was making it hard to breathe.
He got out and came round to open her door for her. She was surprised by the gentlemanly gesture: most high school guys couldn't manage such a thing, and she got out with a smile and a "thank you."
They grabbed the chains from the spare room. Dawn winced as they entered it, the remains of the chalk markings she had used to trap Jon when she thought he was a Guld were still on the floor, although they were barely noticeable now. Still, she blushed, especially when she noticed he hesitated to join her in the room. She was glad he was there though once she tried to pick up the bag of chains. They were heavy: real heavy. They had to be strong to keep a demon or werewolf under control so they were made of thick iron. She struggled to pick the bag up and Jon took the second handle and they carried it out together.
For a guy, a Colonel, who liked to take charge, he wasn't too bad. At least he didn't try and tell her to stay home, or get his airforce people involved or anything. So far? Definitely better than Riley.
The house they went to was pretty nice, not huge, but bigger than a lot of houses in Colorado Springs. They parked next to an Audi in the driveway, hefted the bag between them again and rang the bell.
They waited. Footsteps told them there was someone inside, but they seemed to be taking their time.
"Who is it?" Came a nervous voice from the other side of the door.
"Uh, Dawn and Jon. Oz asked to come over."
The door opened in a hurry then and on the other side was a woman in her mid-forties. She looked kind of haggard, probably not enough sleep, from you know, being a wolf instead, and her fashion sense was sadly typical of a lot of middle aged women: so far off the mark it was just kind of pitiful.
"Thank you for coming," the woman said and ushered them inside quickly, closing and locking the door behind them. "Oz has been so understanding and kind." Her eyes flicked to the bag. "Is that the, uh..."
"Don't worry about it," Dawn said and slapped on her best smile for the lady. "We'll look after you and we've got till sunset to sort stuff out."
The woman gave a jerky little nod and a nervous giggle and led the way through the house, out the back to a conservatory. Oz was sitting there, a fine china teacup in his hand, looking as relaxed as he always did. He gave them a little smile.
"Hey."
"Hey Oz," Jon said and they plonked the bag down on the floor with a rattle of metal that made the woman jump.
"How about some tea?" she asked, but before they could answer she had gone.
"Hi Oz," Dawn said, "So what's the what?"
Oz nodded. "Janice Straper. She doesn't remember being bitten but she woke up in strange places last month too."
"She didn't know what she was?" Jon asked and he sounded surprised.
Oz shrugged. "I didn't at first."
"Tea!" Janice announced and laid a tray down on the coffee table.
Dawn took a cup and sipped. She wasn't a big one for tea, but Giles and Willow (and now Oz with his strange Tibetan stuff) had got her in the habit. This was pretty bad as tea went, but it was hot and caffeinated which was all that mattered. She had a feeling this was going to be long night.
The woman looked so nervous, Dawn tried to make conversation. "So what do you do Janice?" Dawn asked.
"I work at X Electronics. I'm in finance."
"Isn't that where the victim worked?" Jon asked and Dawn winced as Janice stiffened. But there was something off. Something she couldn't quite put her finger on.
Oz nodded. "It was on the news."
"He wasn't anyone I knew." Janice said. "A company that big, it was just bad luck."
"That you killed someone from your company," Dawn said pointedly and waited for a reaction.
"It wasn't me," Janice said with a patronising tone of voice and a harsh glance. "It was the wolf."
"So you live here alone?" Jon said, obviously trying to smooth things over. "It's a big house, a real nice place."
Her hands went back to shaking a little as she tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Oh, yes, now. My children have left home long ago and my husband, well, he's not around anymore."
Yeah, and Dawn was starting to think she knew why.
"Do you mind if I use your bathroom?"
"Of course," she said, "Up the stairs on the left."
Dawn left Jon to make small talk (really not Oz's forte) and went out into the hall and up the stairs. Certain no one would be able to hear anything from here she got out her phone. Buffy had laughed at her desire for a smart phone, but who was laughing now? Well, no one actually, but this phone could give her the answers she needed.
The local news from a month ago had couple of other "animal attack" deaths and she kicked herself for not having noticed before. She was going to have to start paying more attention to the news. One was a Mr Straper. One more search and she had all she needed. She went into the bathroom, flushed the unused toilet, ran the tap for a moment and then went back downstairs.
The problem now was how to communicate her findings to Jon and Oz. Somehow Janice was using the wolf to kill specific people. It had happened before: Oz had killed Verucca and she had heard of others. Dawn reckoned that a strong enough emotion must bleed through to the wolf side, like how Oz said the wolf side was always a part of his human side too.
It was starting to get darker and Dawn still hadn't thought of any way to tell them subtly. Janice hadn't left the room and Dawn couldn't think of a reason to get her out and they were running out of time.
Time to forget being subtle.
Oz opened the bag of chains and started to get them out and Janice was looking more and more nervous.
"It's ok," Jon said. "Oz and Dawn know what they're doing. You'll be perfectly safe and they won't let you harm anyone."
That just made her more nervous and Dawn decided to just blurt it out.
"Hey, wasn't one of the victims from last full moon called Mr Straper? Was that your husband?"
Oz and Jon froze then turned to look at Janice. She was visibly shaking.
"Y-yes it was."
"And the man who you killed yesterday. He was in finance too: it was on the news. So you must have known each other. Wasn't there a woman who died as well? A young blonde-"
"Shut up! It was the wolf who killed them I never would have-"
"Why? Because you would have got caught? The wolf makes a great murder weapon. I get your husband and the blonde, it's kind of obvious, but what did the guy last night ever do to you to deserve that?"
Janice had tears streaming down her face, but she wasn't upset, she was angry as hell and it was getting darker all the time.
"He took my job! The department was being restructured and there was only one position left for the two of us to fight for. I've been there 15 years! And they choose a boy who's barely out of college!"
Jon was reaching for his own bag that he had brought with him, but froze where she looked between all of them.
"It wasn't me! It wasn't! The wolf took over, I don't even remember."
"Then here," Oz said calmly, offering the first cuff of the chains. "Let us make sure it doesn't happen again."
She backed away from the offering, looking right and left like a cornered animal. Dawn backed off as far as she could, but that left her back against a wall that had no door in it. She really didn't want to stick around, but there was no way she was going to get any closer to the crazy woman currently eyeing her up for her next kill.
Oz dropped the cuff and stood. He didn't look happy. "You wanted to kill them and you want to kill others. You don't want to stop." His voice turned gravelly and Dawn looked away, she didn't like seeing him change, not like this.
"So I'll stop you."
Only half changed, he launched himself at Janice. For a minute Dawn thought it was all over, but it was too late. The sun went down and Janice began her own change. Oz was forced to take his full wolf form to keep hold of her, but even then she broke free and charged at Dawn.
She squealed and dived to the side, Jon pulling her almost out of reach, but she felt a snag on her shirt sleeve. No pain, she didn't think she had been scratched, but didn't have time to look. She scuttled behind a chair and Jon pushed her down, covering her as Janice came again...
But never arrived. Dawn quivered at Oz's roar and closed her eyes, put her hands over her ears and tried not to think about the wet sounds she could still barely hear past the pounding of her heart.
Eventually all was still and quiet. She looked up into Jon's face only an inch from hers and realised it hadn't only been her heart she had been feeling. Jon was still lying on top of her, protecting her she knew, but suddenly her heart was beating for whole different reasons.
He pushed himself up on his arms. "You ok?"
Dawn jumped and looked at her arm, pushing him off her so she could check the rip in her shirt. She breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Yeah. She just caught my shirt."
Jon pulled her up with a smile, but they stopped short when they looked over to Oz. He stood with his back to them, over Janice's body, his hands still claws and there was still too much hair.
"Oz...?" Dawn asked hesitantly.
"Run," he said with a growl.
He turned suddenly with a roar, but it was cut short. A spark of electricity wrapped around him and he fell to the ground.
"It's ok," Jon said, a hand on Dawn's arm. "He's just stunned."
She took a deep breath and thought quickly.
"We should get the chains on him just in case. Give him a chance to get control back."
Jon stared at her, then nodded tightly and they set to work, chaining up Oz on Janice's floor next to her bloody body. Jon smiled at her as she passed him a chain, avoiding Oz's claws carefully.
"What?" She asked. "Have I got something on my face?"
"This isn't the date I pictured."
She had to smile as she checked she had the key, then clicked the lock shut (they had all learned that lesson when Xander brought that girl home. That was an image of him she hadn't needed).
"Want to try again?"
"Sure," Jon said, and leaned back against the sofa. When she sat down next to him he pulled her closer and they watched over Oz's prone, chained form together. "Have you ever been fishing?"